Our first outing with the new walking group, only we're using the old blogsite temporarily. Fifteen of us set off from Langtoun Church after the morning service heading for Markinch in cars. We parked at the railway station and took off up the High Street towards the prominent church at the top of the brae. This is now part of a four church union call Heart of Fife Parish Church. We gently progressed uphill via Kirk Wynd till we reached Manse Road, followed by Northall Road. Under the railway bridge, we were now on the country walk. Just there, Markinch Heritage Group had kindly created a map of the Historical Trail and left some leaflets to take with us.
We knew the start of this walk was a bit steep; a good thing some of us brought our walking poles. There were one or two stops to catch our breath on the way up and we pretended the stops were to take in the beautiful views across the fields, still golden after the recent harvest. We came to a few steps in the wall on our left - we could have taken that route to the top of Cuinin Hill and on to Star but we heard that the pub in Star had closed so we thought it wasn't worthwhile making the detour. Still climbing gently, we remarked how good this exercise was for us, despite our sair knees feeling the strain. Now at the top of Braes Loan, the land evened out and some of us were relieved. We passed through a farm and then stopped to chat with a lady in one of the farm cottages. She had a lovely garden and I heard some tips being shared about how to get the best out of your dahlias. The lady also told us that her son was in the field opposite driving the combo (farm speak for combine harvester), and he'd just called his mum to bring some food out to him. Sons are always looking for food. As we passed the combo, we thought about the wee field meeces. The wee sleekit cow'rin tim'rous beasties whose nests would be getting churned up no doubt, but we didn't like meeces, so our sympathies were short-lived.
Thank goodness the climbing was over, but before the descent began, we had another photo shoot at the viewpoint below where we absorbed the breathtaking contours of our beautiful county before us.
Most of us seemed to speed up a little on the descent, but the last three were too busy chatting and fell behind so didn't get in this photo.
ah... now on level land we were actually walking part of the Kennoway to Markinch stretch of the Pilgrims' Way. It had been a beautiful afternoon weatherwise, but we noticed the colour of the clouds changing so we picked up the pace a little. Our refreshments were booked for 3.30pm at the Laurelbank Hotel back in the town and we arrived dead on time, desperate for our prebooked scones. Alas, they kept us waiting for a bit too long for comfort. However when they did arrive, they were delicious and well worth waiting for. A wee short walk back to the cars at the railway car park, and the new group's first walk was completed. All that remained was for us to say a wee prayer in an unplanned circle, ending with, 'until we meet again, May God hold you in the palm of His hand.' Perfect.
DW
